Welcome to the second part of my 12 months of blogging about mental health – Although released in March, it was actually written in February!
This month I want to touch on Pushing you comfort zone. And this can be on race day, an endurance event you’ve signed up for or also something in your day to day life.
Pushing, and being outside of our comfort zone is something we instinctively avoid, naturally we see this as a zone which is deemed to hurt us. But infact, it’s where most of the most valuable lessons in life are.
I learnt when I was younger, being really shy, that pushing myself into uncomfortable situations when I had to be the centre of attention, where I had to speak to people really did help me grow into being comfortable in my own skin and become more confident.
In my sporting life, the 12 Hour Hurricane Heat, was pushing me outside of the comfort zone. It started at midnight and lasted nearly 16 hours, with a 600 Burpee finisher after we had done hours of brutal PT and team work based tasks all with a heavy ruck on, and usually carrying a heavy telephone pole type log between us.
I’m accustomed and (Semi) comfortable with OCR and endurance sports, so why would I put myself in that situation? Well for me I wanted to learn what I was capable of as well as see when the darkest hour is upon me, what my true mindset would be.
Being pushed to that end degree, gave me new light and focus. It gave me a new reference point in life. You know what, life really isn’t as tough or bad as it can be, we live fairly comfortable existences for the most part…
Pushing into that uncomfortable zone, is where we grow, its where we realise. Yes, life is hard… But my god, it could be a lot tougher.
It makes you appreciate the small things and appreciate the comforts of just being warm and dry… So next time you fell like a situation could be uncomfortable… go for it!